The White Man's Burden
By Rudyard Kipling (McClure's
Magazine 12 Feb. 1899).
Take up the White Man's
burden-- Send forth the best ye
breed-- Go, bind your sons to
exile To serve your captives'
need; To wait, in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild-- Your new-caught sullen
peoples, Half devil and half child. Take up the White Man's
burden-- In patience to abide, To veil the threat of
terror And check the show of
pride; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made
plain, To seek another's profit And work another's gain. Take up the White Man's
burden-- The savage wars of peace-- Fill full the mouth of
Famine, And bid the sickness
cease; And when your goal is
nearest (The end for others
sought) Watch sloth and heathen
folly Bring all your hope to
nought. Take up the White Man's
burden-- No iron rule of kings, But toil of serf and
sweeper-- The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not
enter, The roads ye shall not
tread, Go, make them with your
living And mark them with your
dead. Take up the White Man's
burden, And reap his old reward-- The blame of those ye
better The hate of those ye
guard-- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the
light:-- "Why brought ye us
from bondage, Our loved Egyptian night?" Take up the White Man's
burden-- Ye dare not stoop to
less-- Nor call too loud on
Freedom To cloak your weariness. By all ye will or whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent sullen peoples Shall weigh your God and
you. Take up the White Man's
burden! Have done with childish
days-- The lightly-proffered
laurel, The easy ungrudged praise: Comes now, to search your manhoodThrough all the thankless
years, Cold, edged with
dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your
peers. Citation: Kipling, Rudyard. "The White Man's Burden." McClure's Magazine 12 (Feb. 1899). http://www.boondocksnet.com/kipling/kipling.html In Jim Zwick, ed., Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935. http://www.boondocksnet.com/ail98-35.html (March 6, 2001). |